With the 2021 season behind us, we can finally look back on the various position groups for the Oklahoma Sooners and assess how each group did. The Sooners entered the season as favorites to end up in the College Football Playoff. They struggled early to look the part of a national championship contender and eventually faltered late in losses to Baylor and Oklahoma State.
Of course, there were different subplots along the way, and one of them directly centered on the most critical position on the field — the quarterback.
The quarterbacks for the Sooners have been college football rockstars for years. From Baker Mayfield to Kyler Murray to Jalen Hurts, the Sooners have had no shortage of star power at the quarterback position. It continued in 2021 with Spencer Rattler and the incoming true freshman Caleb Williams. Both were five-star quarterbacks and top 10 recruits in their respective high school classes.
Spencer Rattler
Spencer Rattler entered 2021 with more hype than any player in the country. That’s not hyperbole or an exaggeration. Immediately after his final performance of 2020, in which he eviscerated Florida’s defense in the Cotton Bowl, he was pegged as the projected number one overall pick, the favorite for the Heisman, and as the QB poised to lead Oklahoma to its eighth national title.
Things never panned out that way. It started in the first game, on just Rattler’s second throw of the season. He fired a ball deep into coverage that Tulane intercepted. It would go on to start a wave of up and down moments that eventually led to Rattler’s benching in the Red River Rivalry.
Rattler’s numbers weren’t horrible on the season. 140/187 with 11 touchdown passes to 5 interceptions for 1,483 yards and a 74 percent completion percentage.
Rattler was the product of a shaky (at best) offensive line, some highly questionable playcalling and coaching, the weight of expectations he entered the season with, and NIL deals that added even more pressure to succeed. While Rattler displayed some flaws in his game, he is still a talented quarterback.
At times, he struggled with decision-making and trusted his all-world arm talent too much. And it cost him because either he lost his mechanics or believed he could throw himself out of any situation. Couple that with his offensive linemen not giving him inconsistent time to throw and Rattler not being an elusive, improvising, and scrambling quarterback, and he took sacks more than he would’ve liked.
On the flip side, his play-caller, QB coach, and head coach Lincoln Riley, never helped him out. Riley provided very questionable playcalling decisions like failing to utilize the run enough to force teams out of the two-high shell coverages they ran against Oklahoma. They were begging the Sooners to run on them, but Riley never committed to it enough to make teams respect it. As a result, it was tough for the Sooners to make many explosive plays in the passing game.
It all came down to the Sooners game vs. Texas. The Sooners got into an early hole, and Rattler added to that with an interception and a fumble. He was benched and would never start again.
Rattler would later transfer to South Carolina with tight end Austin Stogner where they’ll play under former Oklahoma tight ends coach and current South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer.
Excited for the next chapter!#SpursUp🤙🏽 pic.twitter.com/AevyElKhAa
— Spencer Rattler (@SpencerRattler) December 14, 2021
For Rattler’s career, he finished 361/515, a completion percentage of 70 percent to go along with 4,595 yards, 40 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
He was never as horrible as the college football world made him out to be, but he was not nearly as dynamic and on point as he was projected to be by the media. Factor in the fact that his supporting cast didn’t perform or coach up to par, and he probably did the best he could.
2021 Grade: C
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Caleb Williams
The other notable star quarterback of the 2021 Sooners was Caleb Williams, the five-star freshman of the 2021 recruiting class and the guy the Sooners thought would be taking over the reins heading into the 2022 season. That would have been the case had Lincoln Riley not left Oklahoma following their final regular-season game when they lost to the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Williams came into the Spring taking high school and college classes concurrently, all the while trying to learn the Oklahoma Sooners playbook. His journey to prepare for the 2021 season was absurd, and one he highlighted on “The Podcast on the Prairie,” a podcast hosted by Jeremiah Hall and Brayden Willis.
He got to Norman as an early enrollee, and he put on a show in the Sooners’ spring game. The performance was so good that it led people to believe they’re easily could have been a quarterback competition between him and Rattler.
Rattler would win the job, but as Rattler struggled through the teams’ first few games, the murmurs about wanting to see him replaced by Williams got louder.
They reached their peak on a Saturday night date in Norman against West Virginia. The Sooners were struggling offensively, and after a failed offensive series, chants of “We Want Caleb” rang throughout the stadium loud and clear enough for viewers at home to hear via TV.
His time would come in the Red River Showdown when he replaced Rattler after a few turnovers, and with the Sooners needing a spark in a game they trailed by three scores in. He would score on a 4th down scamper and eventually replace Rattler for the remainder of the game. Williams led the Sooners to their biggest comeback in the rivalry and would remain the starter for the rest of the season.
He dazzled against TCU and Texas Tech, throwing six touchdown passes against the Red Raiders. The team as a whole struggled against Kansas but found were able to score 35 second half points and closed out the game on a heads-up fourth-down conversion. With running back Kennedy Brooks stopped on the critical fourth-down play, Williams snatched the ball and spun forward for a key first down that helped the Sooners close out the game.
His first significant struggles happened against eventual Big 12 champions Baylor when he went on the road for the first time in a hostile environment. The Baylor defense harassed him and the Oklahoma offense en route to the upset win over the Sooners. He would struggle a bit more against Iowa State in the last home game of the year but made enough throws to help win the game and set up a do-or-die situation for the Sooners’ College Football Playoff chances in Bedlam.
A win would keep them alive, while a loss would eliminate them from going to the Big 12 Championship game.
He played well despite the Sooners’ offense disappearing in the third quarter entirely thanks to penalties, poor execution, and, again, bad playcalling. On his final drive of the regular season, he did everything possible to will the Sooners to a victory but came up short.
Following Riley’s departure to USC, the Sooners program was in a state of shock. Williams would stick around to start against the Oregon Ducks in the Valero Alamo Bowl. He dazzled against the Ducks but was very noncommittal to Oklahoma for 2022.
Ultimately, he would enter the transfer portal where schools like USC, UCLA, and Wisconsin are vying for his skills.
There’s no mistaking it. Williams is ultra-talented and offered the Sooners’ offense something Rattler didn’t, and that’s the ability to run the ball. It helped mitigate the up and down offensive line play and gave opponents another thing to think about.
His departure allowed former UCF quarterback to reunite with new Sooners’ OC Jeff Lebby. While it looks unlikely he returns, he brought energy, life, and some great QB play (at times) to the Sooners when they needed a spark and reason to believe they could still achieve the goals they had set out for themselves.
He experienced turbulence like any freshman quarterback but navigated it and ended the year on a high note. Wherever he is in 2022, that team will be better with him as their starting quarterback.
2021 Grade: B
2022 Projections
With neither quarterback on the roster heading into the 2022 season, the Sooners will turn the keys over to Dillon Gabriel, a one-time freshman All-American under Jeff Lebby. Lebby was Gabriel’s offensive coordinator at UCF, but most recently with Ole Miss, where he helped Matt Corral become a likely first-round pick.
Gabriel is talented, knows the offense, and has played a lot of collegiate football. Behind him, there is a lot more uncertainty as the Sooners are still seemingly in the running for USC transfer QB Jaxson Dart.
With no real movement in that regard, the Sooners will presumably do everything possible to get 2022 four-star Nick Evers, who enrolled early as ready as possible to be the backup in the event of a Gabriel injury. He’s talented, but he’ll be highly unseasoned. Behind him will likely be Ralph Rucker and Penn State transfer Micah Bowens who hasn’t quite materialized into anything but depth.
The Sooners will be fine at the position as long as Gabriel can stay healthy. A Dart commitment alleviates concerns about the depth at quarterback. However, until we know how that saga ends, it’s likely the Sooners will enter 2022 hoping for a clean bill of health is in the cards for Dillon Gabriel.
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